Buenos Aires Cafe

Lunch time called for a break from work and the search for a different lunch venue. I drove around with a work buddy looking for Soul Food, which is almost impossible to find on a Monday. Small, locally owned shops are often closed Monday’s, we just forgot that. So since we were in East Austin we drove by the same haunts, many that I had been to before like Gene’s.

So we rolled up on Tony’s Southern Comfort, which I swore was just there (well it was over 2-years ago). Yet another causality of the Obamaconomy. Now the sign says Buenos Aires Café. Apparently this joint used to be down on SoCo, and why they moved up here is beyond me because it really doesn’t fit in.

The place is much nicer than Tony’s was, and it just seems a little too polished. Fruity even. Whatever, we were hungry. I went with the Milanese Al Plato, which is “two tender eye of round (not ground) beef cutlets breaded and fried”. It was good, had a nice bread crumb crust, and a surprise of pesto style stuff under the breading. It was large for lunch and I could not finish all of it. I thought it needed some type of sauce or gravy with the cutlets. The fries were as to be expected and the salad was just OK. I would suggest it to someone that likes Pesto, but given the decision to do over, I would try something else.

My cohort choose two of the Empanada’s , Spicy Ground Beef and Spinach. Both had flakey crust and he enjoyed them down to the last bite.

The thing that I most enjoyed was the Asparagus Cream Soup which was hands down the best thing we both ate. The flavor was awesome and it was rich and creamy.

I should have done the Soup for desert, as the Lemon Pie had all the appearances of being good, but the crust was cooked too long, almost burned, and it was solid as concrete. The waiter never asked how it was, only the nice lady (manager?) who cleaned our table. She said she would show the Chef, but did not offer to remove it from the bill…which we had already paid at any rate.

I’d go back, probably try the Empanada’s and another Soup de Jour. Even though it is a far departure from the soul food that was there before, it is a good haunt if you’re in the area.